Rice Class of 2017 ED/RD Discussion Thread

<p>I go to a pretty competitive school in Texas. However, my GPA is not super strong for Rice, but I believe my act scores can be pretty competitive. I won awards in Model United Nations. I am also the historian of the club. During the summer, I interned at a lab in UT Arlington. I primarily studied gene expression in cancer cells. My plan is to apply to Rice Early Decision and put Materials Science as a major. Do you guys think that the lab internship can make me competitive since Rice is a huge research institute?</p>

<p>Only the admissions committee knows for sure. It would help us give advice if you actually told us all the facts and details, like # of APs, ACT score, and GPA. I think the internship will help, but only to a certain degree, so it depends how competitive you are without it.</p>

<p>I took 8 aps
AP Human Geography 4
AP World History 5
AP Chemistry 3
APUSH 4
AP CALC AB 3
AP ENGLISH 4
AP MACRO MICRO 4</p>

<p>ACT Score 34
SAT SCORE 2120
GPA 3.4 unweighted</p>

<p>I feel that it wont be good for me because I am doing the common app essay #5 where i write about how i can contribute/what i can bring to the college campus but Rice’s is essentially the same. I will obviously be rice specific but I still feel they will be reading 2 similar essays which will not benefit me</p>

<p>Hey, I know this is for seniors who are going to start applying but, I am thinking about transferring to Rice starting next year, so maybe you guys can help me out. I have never done one of these kinds of posts before so please tell me if there is anything else I should add to help you guys better chance me. Also, since I will have only done 1 semester of college when I apply, I assume that Rice will still look heavily at my high school stats. So those are the ones that I am putting down here.</p>

<p>Major: Biomedical Engineering (Bioengineering for Rice)</p>

<p>Rank/GPA: 16/829, 5.35/6.0 (schools GPA scale), 4.0 unweighted</p>

<p>ACT: 32, 33 Math 36 Science 30 English 29 Reading (Would Rice see that I am going for engineering and that my math and science score are pretty high)
SAT II: 800 USH 790 Math II</p>

<p>AP Scores: AP World History: 5
AP US History: 5
AP English III: 5
AP English IV: 4
AP Chemistry: 4
AP Calculus AB: 5<br>
AP Government: 5</p>

<p>Going to try to keep this short
ECs: Debate Team (Quallified for state tournament 2 in 3 years, quallified for national tournament, VP of Tournaments and Novice Coordinator)
Academic Decathlon (5th in regional, 23rd in state)
National Honor Society (Liaison for an organization)
National Science Honor Society (Vice President)
Member in Health Occupation Students of America (HOSA), Model United Nations, Indian Culture Club, Spanish National Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta (Math Honor Society), Young Democrats </p>

<p>Science Related Works: Internship with Doctor for an year, UTMB Summer Science Program, National Youth Leadership Forum in Medicine, NASA STEM Program, NASA INSPIRE Program</p>

<p>I have some volunteer stuff, but choose not to list that. Obviously how I do at my current university in biomedical engineering will play a big role. Also, I am going to be doing research in a lab during my first year, if that makes a difference. Any feedback will be much appreciated. Thanks.</p>

<p>I think it you were a freshmen applicant you’d be in the middle ground, having a good shot, but no one would be able to say for sure. Since you’re a transfer I don’t know how that affects it. I think the transfer rate is similar to the freshmen rate, so I’m going to guess that as long as you’re college performance is on par with your high school performance you should have a shot.</p>

<p>And feel free to stay and chat with the freshmen applicants. As you can see there aren’t too many of us :)</p>

<p>Good Luck</p>

<p>@CaneFreak, I was thinking the same thing about the essays. I luckily didn’t write that one for my common app essay, but I still don’t like the topic.</p>

<p>I am applying RD-I did my interview today. I think it went really well. Anyone else going to visit in October?</p>

<p>I am! Not for Explore Rice though, I’ll be there after that, and I’m planning on doing my interview while I’m there.</p>

<p>Good luck runallday</p>

<p>Sent from my SPH-L710 using CC</p>

<p>Woah, only 50 days left till the ED deadline, and I still have to visit, do most of the Rice supplement, take the ACT again (probably won’t change but that’s fine), and also take the SAT II Math and hopefully get an 800.</p>

<p>People are annoying. Now that I finally have an (almost) finalized list of colleges, and Rice is at the top people keep going “You want to go to Houston?” It’s annoying… I’m just like “yeah… it’s really nice.” I think they’re worried the Republicans will convert me (I’m a very liberal, gay, atheist from the North East, so people are confused).</p>

<p>As a current Rice student, I can assure you that Rice is liberal as hell. I say this as a person who nearly all of those adjectives apply.</p>

<p>I just submitted my application, applied ED after all. God, this will be a nerve wracking three months.</p>

<p>You already submitted it? I’m not sending mine in for over a month haha. For some reason not sending it in allows me to not worry about it. I don’t know why because either way I’m still just waiting for the result. I do know that in the few days before we here from them, I’ll be an anxious, nervous, wreck.</p>

<p>I want to weigh in on those who were saying that Rice is “liberal.” I agree that Rice is definitely more left-leaning than one might think, considering that it is in the state of Texas. However, I don’t think that Rice has a very active political culture compared to other schools. I’ve found that a slight majority of people here are left-leaning, but usually keep those views to themselves and don’t force them onto others. In most conversations I’ve had where politics came up, the subject was usually changed very quickly.</p>

<p>Agreed. I’ve heard that although Rice is in a pretty liberal part of Texas, and the majority seems to be left-leaning, it’s considered much less liberal than other universities because they’re mostly really, <em>really</em> liberal. </p>

<p>QUESTION!: For a Northern Californian who is used to the moderate, semi-Mediterranean weather of the Bay Area, I understand Houston is…not that at all–in fact, it’s really hot and humid in summer…is it bearable, considering it’s mostly for the first month of school? Or will I melt?</p>

<p>My S is from the Pacific Northwest and didn’t melt, but we had him so psyched out about what the weather/temperature is like there that he found it to not be so bad afterall.</p>

<p>Is anyone doing the SOAR program ?</p>

<p>I wonder how many people from the Houston area are applying ED lol.</p>

<p>From what I saw at Explore Rice, it’s going to be around 100.</p>

<p>Well, last year there were 1,230 ED applicants, so this year there will probably be 1,300+. Also, 43% of admits were from Texas, and I’d guess probably around 50% of applicants were from Texas, so probably 650 ED Texan applicants. I don’t know how many of those will be from Houston though.</p>